Since it emerged, the A-H1N1 virus has constantly been mutating, authorities said. So far, most of these mutations have no clinical significance, but "occasionally we come across a virus that might have clinical significance,” Abraham said.
WHO warned that the H5N1 virus has emerged in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam just as the H1N1 pandemic influenza continues its rampage across the world.
Not only does this place “those in direct contact with birds - usually rural folk and farm workers - at risk of catching the often-fatal disease,” but “the virus could undergo a process of ‘reassortment’ with another influenza virus and produce a completely new strain," WHO stated.
"The most obvious risk is of H5N1 combining with the pandemic ... [H1N1] virus, producing a flu virus that is as deadly as the former and as contagious as the latter."
That the two flu strain could merge, reassert, and produce a new hybrid influenza strain combining the worst elements of each of the viruses is a possibility that authorities have been worrying about ever since the spread of the A-H1N1 virus increased to pandemic level. http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/11277/149/
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